ADVENTURES IN ALBUM ART: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

This new series on Art in the Age will focus on my favorite examples of album art and packaging from the past and present. Though some may see it as a dying form in a world of increasingly invisible media, physical album art still remains a great venue for tactile expression and creativity.

One of my favorite concepts, and a great one to start with, was conceived by Farrow Design for the 1997 Spiritualized album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. The now classic space-rock album contains medicinal allusions, as well as drug-addled undertones which are expressed conceptually within the minimal, prescription-esque artwork and packaging. Both the regular and limited edition versions contained clever liner-notes directing the patient/listener on when to “take” the music. However, the limited edition went a step further by breaking up the 75 minute CD into mini-discs to evoke “tablets” and packaging them in plastic.

Click the photos below to enlarge:

Purchase Ladies and Gentlemen… from Amazon.